Bloody Angola: A Podcast by Jim Chapman

Woody Overton AND Jim Chapman lay out the details when prisoners incarcerated at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola die. What is the funeral procession like....Do family members claim the bodies...where and how are they buried? Answers to all this and more on this 5th episode of Season 3 titled Dying in Prison.#BloodyAngolaPodcast #Dyinginprison #Podcast #Podcasts #truecrime #prison #convictFULL TRANSCRIPT:BLOODY ANGOLA: A PODCAST BY WOODY OVERTON AND JIM CHAPMAN (DYING IN PRISON)Jim: Hey, everyone, and welcome to Bloody-Woody: -Angola. Jim: A podcast 142 years in the making.Woody: The Complete Story of America's Bloodiest Prison. Jim: And I'm Jim Chapman. Woody: And I'm Woody Overton.Jim: And we're going to talk to y'all about some amazing programs that take place in Angola today. It's going to be a little different episode. No murder stuff going on today.Woody: Right. Well, it's got a lot of death in it. Jim: It sure does. [laughs] Woody: Not necessarily murder. Some of them, I'm sure, were murders that occurred inside the wire. Jim: That's a great point. Woody: But ultimately none of us are getting out of this life alive.Jim: That's right. Woody: Always talk about almost 6000 inmates and how 80% of them are going to die inside the wire. Well, think about that, y'all. If you get sentenced to life Angola, let's say you're 20 years old and you're going to have family members and they care about you and love you and all that stuff. But over the years, what happens? Your mom and your daddy are going to die. Your grandparents are going to die. Your siblings are going to have lives of their own and life goes on. We've heard so many times that the inmates say everybody forgets about them. If you live another 50 years in Angola, then really you don't have anybody to care about you on the outside anymore but the people that you're locked up with basically become your family and your best friends.Jim: That's right. A lot of these people or probably the vast majority are locked up for things that are just horrific, and you don't end up in Angola for life if you were an altar boy. In a lot of cases, family maybe turned their backs on them and was the black sheep of that family or whatever and they don't have anybody to pay those respects at the end of their life and so they get buried at Angola in the prison. We're going to go into of that information. Point Lookout Cemetery is the prison cemetery in Angola. It's located on the north side of Angola. It's at the base of the Tunica Hills. This is obviously a situation where what we just told you about, family members are also deceased or there's just no family members that want anything to do with them. Woody: Or maybe they don't have the financial means to come and claim the body when the inmate dies. So, they're forgotten about. But Louisiana has the highest incarceration rate of any US state and of course, sentencing is extremely harsh. But at Angola, 73% of the 6250 inmates are serving sentences of life without parole. The average sentence for the remaining 27% that aren't serving life without is still 90.9 years.Jim: Pretty much alive.Woody: Right. Prisoners aren't even sent to Angola unless they're sentence is over 50 years. Y'all, I believe that's more likely 80 years, like I said in the past. Basically, the result of this is with sentences of this length, most inmates lose touch with the family members and there's no one to collect the remains when they die. Jim: This prison has been around a long time. Go back and listen to The Walls and how Angola got started, but Angola has been around forever.Woody: 140 some years.Jim: 142 years in the making, if you want to get specific. During that time, they did have another cemetery. Woody's going to give you a little heads-up on what happened with that.Woody: Well, the first Angola cemetery got destroyed by a flood in 1927. Now, y'all remember, Angola is surrounded by the Mississippi River on three sides, and every few years, it grows outside of this bank and floods everything. But in 1927, when the flood happened and the water receded, the remains and caskets were found along the levee, and it was impossible to identify anyone. The bodies were reburied in a mass grave in a new cemetery called Point Lookout. It was about two acres, but it was full by the mid 1990s. It contained 331 marked graves and an unknown number of people in the mass grave. An annex, Point Lookout 2, is now in use, and it has a capacity of 700 plots. Approximately 100 of those graves now have been filled, and with the aging inmate population, it will likely max out-Jim and Woody: Near future. Woody: In the past, convicts were buried basically in cardboard boxes, y'all. And today, thanks to Warden Cain, the deceased are buried in coffins made at the prison woodshops by an inmate master carpenter. That's his only job, y'all. These handmade caskets are constructed with brown stained birch and pine. It takes about a week to make just one. Other inmates make the shrouds for the coffins. I want to read you a quote of what Burl Cain said. He said, "Once a man dies, his sentence is complete, and there should be dignity in the passing," Warden Burl Cain.Jim: There you go. You've heard us mention Warden Burl Cain before, and I can't wait to be in the future we're going to do an episode centered completely around Warden Cain, because like every other human being in the world, he had faults in his life, but be hard pressed to find a more respected warden than Warden Cain, and I'm talking nationally. This guy is well known to people that aren't even in the prison circles. So, that tells you who he was, absolutely-- and still alive today and runs the Mississippi Correctional-- the entire correctional system for the state of Mississippi. So, I don't mean to talk as if he's not with us anymore. Woody: Y'all, I've known him for over 30 years. I've worked for him at Dixon Correctional Institute. He is a very religious man, but he's a nonsense man. But he actually cares about the prisoners, as strange as that sounds. He cares about them and he wants to give them dignity, even in death. Jim: Yes. Woody: He was very instrumental in bringing all the changes to Angola, from healthcare to prison inmate programs and give them hope and stuff like that. But he specifically cares about them in death. And even the executions, he stands with them he eats their last meal-- or he used to when he was in Angola. He would eat the last meal with them, whatever they chose. He was there with them when they took the last breath.Jim: 100%. I'll tell you a quick story about how Burl Cain transformed not only the caskets themselves, but the entire process of conducting a funeral for these Angola inmates. When he was in his first year at Angola, they had a burial for one of the prisoners that he attended. At that burial, they were lowering the prisoner into the ground. At this time, they were essentially crates with cardboard--Woody: Basically, like a cardboard box. A big, long cardboard box that holds the body.Jim: They're lowering this inmate down and the bottom fell out of the cardboard box. If that wasn't bad enough, as they started piling dirt on, the top end of the cardboard casket collapsed. In Burl Cain's eyes, this has got to change. It was a total loss of dignity.Woody: Right, dignity there.Jim: At that point, he seeked out who was considered the best carpenter in Angola, talked to him and said, "Look, we want you to head this new program where we're going to build caskets for the prisoners." The guy was more than willing to do it, obviously. And off they went with the casket building that has become world renowned. We'll tell you later about some people you may have heard of that have actually been buried in caskets built by prisoners of Angola.Woody: Right. Now, think about this, y'all. Everybody gets sentenced to Angola-- well, I can't say everybody, but a lot of them have certain crafts that they're masters of before they went in. This guy was a master carpenter. I mean, you have electricians, you have lawyers, you have doctors, you have painters, whatever. Burl sought out the best carpenter. I know they have a lot of them, but he sought out the best carpenter to make these caskets. Now, I know we're going to talk about more in detail but think about how much a casket costs. It costs you like $7000, $8,000 for a general casket for a funeral now, but think about how much it would cost you to have a hand crafted-Jim: Custom made.Woody: -custom-made, just beautiful piece of artwork so you can go to eternal rest in it.Jim: 100%. And he also instituted some other programs.Woody: In 1998, Burl, the funeral process, just taking a casket out there, even though it was hand built and all that in the back of a pickup truck, that still is not like a funeral procession. So, in 1998, he had inmates build a black horse-drawn hearse modeled after an 1800s vintage funeral coach for use during the burial rites. Now, this hearse is a beautiful piece of artwork in itself, and it's pulled by two large white Percheron horses. The hearse is driven by an inmate dressed in black tailcoat and a black high hat, which are also made in Angola in the sewing shop. And six pallbearer follow the coach on the road to the cemetery and assist with the burial. Inmate ministers conduct a service, and the living, traditionally sinned, they're departed away with acapella rendition, "Praise the Lord, I'm free. No longer bound. No more chains holding me. My soul is resting. It's just a blessing. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. I am free." Jim: Yeah, it's a sight to be seen, really, these horse-drawn carriages, and so much respect is put into that. You may ask yourself, we're talking

2 Feb 202356min

Kelly Jennings joins Woody Overton and Jim Chapman for yet another appearance and they discuss Angola prisoner Miguel Velez who in the eighties was hired to kill drug runner Barry Seal by Cocaine King Pablo Escobar.#Barryseal #pabloescobar #drugs #gangsters #cartel #podcast #bloodyangolapodcastAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

26 Jan 202350min

Woody Overton and Jim Chapman bring you inside the world of female convicts in this Sally Port companion edition to Bloody Angola with "Boss Bitches" In this first edition they cover 4 female convicts who graced the headlines in different times in history including Martha Stewart, Susan Atkins, Aileen Wuornos and Brenda Spencer. #Marthastewart #susanatkins #aileenwuornos #brendaspencer #podcasts#truecrime #bloodyangolapodcastAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

23 Jan 202349min

First it was the Red Hat, brutal.....Then upon the closure of the Red Hat Cell Block came its replacement, even more brutal was the notorious Camp J.Closed in 2018 forever, Camp J was feared by even the convicts of Death Row and the most infamous solitary cell block in America.Woody Overton and Jim Chapman of Bloody Angola Podcast share the story of Camp J and the details that made it so bad.#CampJ #WilbertRideau #PrisonPodcast #BloodyAngola #LouisianaStatePrison #SolitaryConfinementFULL TRANSCRIPTBLOODY ANGOLA: A Podcast by Woody Overton and Jim Chapman (Camp J)Jim: Hey, everyone, and welcome to Bloody-Woody: -Angola.Jim: A podcast 142 years in the making. Woody: The Complete Story of America's Bloodiest Prison. Jim: And I'm Jim Chapman. Woody: I'm Woody Overton.Jim: And we're going to talk about Camp J today, Woody.Woody: Yeah, y'all. Camp J was always controversial, and certainly we can't cover all of Camp J in one episode, but we're not going to make a series out of this. We're just going to bring you some as we go along. Everything from Jim's phenomenal research on stuff and some of the stuff we're going to play today to, in the future, having former inmates that were in Camp J and all that. But let me tell you real quick about Camp J. If you go back on the history part, you remember when they closed the Red Hat cell block, they had to come up with a new area to house the worst of the worst, and that was Camp J.Jim: If you're sitting there and you're wondering, "What is the Red Hat cell block?", well, we covered that, and I believe it was Season 2's opener of Bloody Angola. One thing I'll make sure I do is link that in the description, because this may be your first episode with Bloody Angola. Woody: The Red Hat Cell Block, y'all, was notorious and they ended up shutting it down. How bad does a fucking place have to be if you're going to shut it down, when it's housing people that nobody cares about? But to get locked up in these places like the Red Hat before they shut it down and the new and improved Camp J when they opened it up, you have to be a real, real problem. Now, it doesn't matter what your crime is that you commit on the street, when you get to Angola, you get classified and most convicts do their time in dormitories. But you get locked down on Camp J was an extended lockdown-Jim: CCR, Closed Cell Restricted.Woody: -cell block. To get locked up there, you didn't just get in a fistfight with another inmate. That's a regular working cell block or admin seg thing. You had to either attack a guard with weapons, not just a fistfight. Weapons could be feces or urine also. Or get caught smuggling drugs and/or escape or try to escape. Jim: Rape. Woody: Rape. Yeah, you could call it raping somebody. You had to do something so bad that they wanted to lock you away from the rest of the prison population.Jim: Think about it as a prison inside a prison. One of the questions you may have had was, "Well, you're already in prison. What else can they do to you?" Well, they have to have a place they can send you that is even worse than the situation you're already in. You're already in jail. You're already being told when to shit, when to eat, all those sorts of things. So, what can they do to you outside of that in CCR units or lockdowns or whatever you want to call it? Camp J was the place that you went to when you broke the rules in prison.Woody: The worst rules. They like killed somebody or whatever. Jim: Shanked. Jugged them up.Woody: Killed them good.Jim: Killed them good. [chuckles] Woody: When you get sent to Camp J, you have to do 90 days before you come up for a review to be released back in general population. Now, that's 90 days without a low court or a high court writeup. And that means no rule infractions. If you're back there on your first day, and most of them do, and you fuck up, you do something wrong, guess what happens? You know you got to finish your other 89 days, or you're going to automatically get rejected. These guys aren't model convicts by any means, and they get the other 89 days to fuck up, and you can't do them anymore. So, when your review comes up again, you automatically get them denied, and then you get a clean slate for the next 90 days. But they got convicts in Camp J that are housed there forever.Jim: Forever. Woody: I mean, like so many years. I guess we should tell them a little bit about it. Jim: One thing I want to go into before we do that, just paint the picture.Woody: Oh, yeah. Paint the picture of the cells and everything else. Jim: Think of it like this, y'all. If you were like me and you were raised and your parents would do this to you, maybe you'd say a cuss word, you see how that helps us [crosstalk] saying-- Cusswords every now and then. So, maybe--Woody: [crosstalk] -get the soap. Jim: Yeah, get the soap. That's one version. But a lot of parents would say, "Go in the corner, put your nose in the corner, and stand there till I tell you to come out."Woody: My dad would just beat my ass-[laughter]Woody: -with a leather belt from Mexico which said "Mexico" and had dove imprints on there, it used to leave them on me. But I promise you, I deserved every one of them.Jim: Every one of them. [laughs] But you put your nose in the corner and you'd have to sit there till your parents-- and 10 minutes seem like 10 hours. That's your parents' version of Camp J. That's their way of putting you solitary, by yourself, where all you have to do is focus on your nose in the corner. Well, that's what Camp J is, but obviously on a much higher level.Woody: They're locked up 23 out of 24 hours a day. Most of the time, I would submit to you, they're locked up longer. They didn't get that hour out. Back in the day, they only gave them like one phone call a month. But if you got your hour out, it was for a shower and just sweep out your cell real quick because they weren't letting trustees in your cell. These are bad motherfuckers. And you get out. Now, I remember being a boy and going to Angola on a school tour, and they took us to Camp J. Outside the front of the camp, they had the exercise yards. Now it's not open yards, these were fenced in, wired-in yards, probably--Jim: Dog pens, basically. Woody: -were basically, yeah. I was going to say like 15 yards around. I remember going up and there was this convict, and he was shackled, but he only had one arm. He was shackled with his one arm and shackled to his feet and he's running that circle. But guess what? They called him Wingding. We've got an episode of Wingding. Wingding was trying to escape and they shot him at the gate and blew his arm off and they killed the other guy during the escape. We'll tell that story--[crosstalk] Jim: Yes.Woody: But Wingding was running around in circles and it's a bunch of impressionable kids and he's like, "Fuck you, you motherfuckers. Y'all coming in here and stare at us like fishing a bowl? You fucking motherfuckers, I'll kill all of you." What're they going to do to him? Jim: Yeah.Woody: He's already--[crosstalk] Jim: He's already in Camp J.Woody: [crosstalk] -like 15 fucking years. He ain't getting out. He was going to speak his mind. But when Camp J opened, it was a brand-new facility and top notch. But guess what? They didn't put a lot of money in Camp J. It would become known as the worst cell blocks in the United States of America, and probably in the world.Jim: You've heard of us talk about this before, but budgets are always an issue with prisons no matter where you are in the country. Angola is no exception to that because obviously, us as free people, the last thing you want to do is have to pay for prisoners. Now, it's a necessary evil. It's just like insurance. You've got to have it just because if we didn't pay for these prisons, you'd have everybody roaming free, and that would obviously be a problem. But Camp J, when it opened, it was brand new. Well, as budgetary things came through every year, they would cut the budget for Angola. So, what do they start looking at? "Well, we got to cut staff. We've got to cut we don't need to fix that air conditioner that broke," although Camp J didn't even have that. Whatever it may be, they cut where they had to, and Camp J got cut a lot more [crosstalk] parts.Woody: Camp J got [crosstalk] cut more than anything else.  Jim: Sure.Woody: Because nobody gave a shit.Jim: Nobody gave-- yeah. It's CCR, right? Woody: Now, think about it, y'all. If you had 6000 inmates or 5800, however many it was, you've got that certain percentage. Now, it's all rapists and murderers and armed robbers and just the worst of the worst, but most of them are doing their time, not letting their time do them but you have a real, real big factor on Camp J. I mean, that certain percentage of that population that's in Angola, they're in there for not obeying the laws, for murder and rape and everything else but a certain percentage, when they get there, they're going to continue to act out. It's the only thing they know. I'm going to tell you right now, a huge percentage of them have severe mental issues. I'm telling you like cray, cray motherfuckers. But you know what? The state, especially back in the day, they only have one doctor come in from Baton Rouge, whatever, these guys didn't get the treatment, especially the mental stuff that they needed. So, the cells are so small, y'all. It's a single-man cell. It has a shitter, a little metal iron desk, and basically about it. I think it's like five steps down, five steps back. You probably can reach your arms out and touch both walls.Jim: It's a closet.Woody: You don't have any direct visual contact with anyone else. It's just the place t

19 Jan 20231h 1min

In this Bloody Angola Podcast "Historic Prisoners with Jim" Sally Port. Jim Chapman discusses the imprisonment of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. of over 29 Times and performs his rendition of the historical landmark letter entitled "A letter from a Birmingham Jail" by Dr. King on this Martin Luther King day 2023#drmartinlutherkingdayAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

16 Jan 20231h 6min

The last meals of convicts, what would you choose if you were facing execution?Woody Overton and Jim Chapman bring you another episode of Bloody Angola: A Prison Podcast by Woody Overton and Jim Chapman where the topic is some of the most infamous of those executed and what they choose to eat just before they ride the lightning or get the needle!#deathrow #podcast #applepodcast #spotify #lastmeals #podcastsBloody Angola is produced by Envision Podcast StudiosWebsitewww.bloodyangolapodcast.comFULL TRANSCRIPTBloody Angola:A Podcast by Woody Overton and Jim Chapman (LAST MEALS)Jim: Hey, everyone, and welcome back to another edition of Bloody-Woody: -Angola.Jim: A podcast 142 years in the making.Woody: The complete story of America's Bloodiest Prison.Jim: I'm Jim Chapman.Woody: I'm Woody Overton.Jim: And last meals, Woody Overton, are on our mind today.Woody: I've always just been totally fascinated by the condemned and what they ask for their last meals. Jim: That's a big decision. I mean, people don't really think about it, but this is the last meal you'll ever eat and I'm sure these death row inmates, like all of us-- people ask y'all the time, "What is your favorite food?" And sometimes people can't decide on that.Woody: I know Angola, back in my time, during corrections, they actually had an inmate that all he did was prepare the last meals for the condemned.Jim: Yeah. And I'm sure considered it like quite an honor.Woody: I think they even did a cookbook of it. I'm going to have to look that up. We have to do an episode on that cookbook.Jim: We might have to do a cookbook.[laughter] Jim: The Bloody Angola-- look, and I guarantee you some people going to message us down and say, "I'm a buyer, I want a cookbook."Woody: We told y'all it would always be different. Today, we're not going to talk about Angola, we're going to talk about some really fascinating last meals from across the country.Jim: Yeah. And last meals of death row inmates, they've been around a long time. Actually, they date back to the 20s in the United States, but in the UK, Europe, they were prevalent even in the 1800s.Woody: Yeah, but they were killing a lot more people back then.Jim: [laughs]Woody: "Off with your head," and shit.Jim: Yeah. I don't know how many people actually got to this side.Woody: I think the [crosstalk] the public executions in England [unintelligible [00:03:20] were used until the early 20th century.Jim: Yeah, it wouldn't surprise me. And last meals of any sort-- and we're going to stick to the United States here, especially in the United States, when they were first invented or became in vogue or whatever, they were looked at as an act of mercy on the prisoners, kind of humanize them in the eyes of the general public.Woody: "We'll feed you before we kill you."Jim: Yeah. "He likes pizza and I like pizza. We got something in common," that kind of thing, I'm sure. It has become in vogue since the 20s. Usually, there's a certain time period in which these inmates have, it's not necessarily their last meal, it might be two days earlier that they get that special meal.Woody: Yeah. In Louisiana, it is on the day of execution, but it varies by state to state.Jim: Is every inmate entitled to a last meal?Woody: No, they're not. Like I said, it varies state to state, including some states, you don't get your request for a last meal.Jim: No last meal at all. You just eat whatever they got. Woody: Texas was the first state to introduce last meals to death throw inmates in 1924. It was quickly shared among other states. And after death row inmates, Lawrence R. Brewer's extravagant large and expensive last meal that he did not eat. Texas said, "We're not doing this shit anymore," but this dude didn't even eat, like, his last FU to the state of Texas. "You spent that money on me, and I'm not even going to eat it."Jim: In Arizona, state procedures on executions state that an inmate can request the last meal by completing a form 14 days before their execution. So, they can't wait till the last minute. They got to give them at least two weeks' notice just like when you're hired and fired from a job or whatever. Woody: I can see that wouldn't be unreasonable to think that if you've been on death row probably for 20 years, you probably already know what you want probably way ahead of time. We're the state, right? We got red tape. Give us a form to sign.Jim: That's right. Florida, just another reason for me to like Florida, other than the sunshine and the sand and all that sort of thing, Florida believes in local, and so when you have a last meal, it's got to be local.Woody: And it's a $40 budget. Hey, it could be local, but you better not order a grass fed.Jim: If you order a T-bone, you ain't getting a potato.Woody: Yeah. $40.Jim: So, that's interesting. Now in Louisiana, right here at home, the warden will join you.Woody: Yes. Burl Kane was very instrumental in that, and I think he tried to show compassions to the inmates and that the state is really not their enemy. We're going to sit down. Actually, Warden Kane would eat the meals with him. Whatever they're eating, he would sit down and break bread with them right before he killed him.[laughter]Jim: Seems kind of bizarre, doesn't it? I'll tell you what, it's a show of respect, I think, more than anything else. Warden Kane actually started that program at Angola, and it continues today.Woody: Remember, the Department of Corrections' job is not to punish the inmates, don't beat them every day for the murders they committed or whatever. You're simply to house them and stop them from escaping and hurting other people. So, even though you're going to kill them in a couple of hours, you can sit down and with their family members, usually, and break bread with them.Jim: Yeah, right. If you thought $40 was wow, how can I make that stretch? I know what y'all are doing right now. You're sitting there and you're thinking, "For $40, could I get my favorite last meal?" Well, guess what? Be glad you don't live in Oklahoma, if you're not an Oklahoma listener right now, because in Oklahoma, you only get $25.Woody: They say that a reasonable effort shall be made to accommodate the request, but the budget shall not be exceeded. [crosstalk] Jim: You can't get a Happy Meal for $25. Woody: Right. But in Maryland, they don't even offer a final meal selection. They say the death row inmate will eat the same as any other inmate in the prison.Jim: That's right. States that maybe don't have the amount, I think of Vermont right off the top of my head, don't have the amount of executions. They'll let you go a little bit more crazy. They'll give you more personal choices of meal and things like that. That's just because their budget, it allows for that. They don't put a whole lot of people to death. Maybe they're just a small state, like a Vermont.Woody: Right. Well, it's typically assumed that inmates sentenced to death can ask for anything they want for the last meal. It does, like we told y'all vary from state to state. Some states have budgets, and some have rules on locations of where the meals can come from, like Florida being local but some states don't allow last meals at all. Jim: Yeah. Not only that, this is going to surprise y'all, no state allows cigarettes.Woody: That's crazy. Back in the day, cigarettes were everything in the prison. According to the Department of Corrections, no states allow cigarettes. Under an order by former Texas Governor George W. Bush, who would become the president later on, cigarettes were banned for health reasons.[laughter][crosstalk]Woody: We won't let you have that last cigarette before we let you ride Ol' Sparky, right? Jim: That's actually pretty good. Now, in 1997, there was an inmate by the name of Larry Wayne White. He requested a meal of liver fried onions, tomatoes, cottage cheese, and a cigarette. He got everything but his final smoke. How about that? I don't know if I'm picking liver as my last meal number one.Woody: [crosstalk] -cottage cheese, livers, fried onions, maybe. Yeah, I probably like to have that cigarette but he didn't get it. Jim: Now, you may wonder, well, they can't smoke, but can they drink? Actually, alcohol is not allowed.Woody: But it's frequently requested. In the earlier years, alcohol was allowed, and it sometimes still is, but it depends on who it is and where it's being requested.Jim: Now, they've even had inmates, and I could see some out there doing it. They have actually requested Dom Pérignon. Woody: Dom Pérignon. Jim: One death row inmate actually requested but they denied him.Woody: Denied. Jim: [crosstalk] Woody: He didn’t even get a pink champagne either.Jim: MD 20/20, baby. [chuckles] Woody: But unorthodox or unavailable requests are replaced with similar substitutes, and it was not unusual for an inmate's final choices to reveal something about them.Jim: That's what I find so interesting about this, and we're going to get into specific inmates and what they requested, and it does. It kind of reveals something about the inmate that you may pick up on by what they request for the last meal. Now, some decline a last meal in order to basically demonstrate contempt for the prison authorities. "I'm not going to give you the pleasure of giving me a last meal," or they're just so dadgum scared of going to the electric chair or getting a dose of the good ol' shot that they are unable to eat. Stomach's just in knots. They're not hungry. They're about to get the chair or get the needle, one of the two. Woody: They might have a little upset tummy from

12 Jan 202344min

Scott Huffman who spent over 5 years in a Louisiana prison joins Woody Overton and Jim Chapman to discuss what landed him in prison, life inside of prison and how learning sign language completely changed his life upon his release!Bloody Angola Sally Port are podcast companions to the Bloody Angola series and are released 2 times weekly!Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

10 Jan 20231h 7min

Woody Overton and Jim Chapman open up season 3 of Bloody Angola: A Podcast by Woody Overton and Jim Chapman give you a ton of insight into Louisiana State penitentiary at Angola by reading you the actual diary of the founder of the "Angolite" magazine and editor Old Wooden Ears" from the 1930's!#Louisianastatepenitentiary #AngolaPrison #Podcast #Applepodcast #spotifyTranscript of episode2023 Jim: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to another edition of Bloody-Woody: -Angola.Jim: A podcast 142 years in the making.Woody: A Complete Story of America's Bloodiest Prison. Jim: And I'm Jim Chapman.Woody: And I'm Woody Overton.Jim: First of all, Woody Overton, it's Season 3.Woody: Yes, love, right? [chuckles]Woody: I can't believe that. Thank you everyone for liking us and sharing us and helping us grow. It's been amazing. Chase Team members and now all our higher levels of Patreon.Jim: Warden.Woody: Warden and C.E.R.T. Team. Thank you so much. We appreciate you. But yeah, Season 3, it's amazing. We've sold out two live shows now. Y'all's Response has been phenomenal. We appreciate you. You're about to start getting Bloody Angola three days a week.Jim: And as is our tradition, Woody Overton, we always start with a classic story from Angola.Woody: This is a classic story. Not only about the person it's about, but we are going to bring it to you from what should be a story in its own.Jim: Yes.Woody: The Angolite.Jim: The start of the Angolite, which for those of you that are not familiar, that's a magazine that is released by the prison for inmates to read.Woody: Not only inmates. I had a subscription to it back in 1992 or 1993 and they used to mail it to my house.Jim: All we're doing is telling people how old we are. Woody: [chuckles] Okay, sure. Yeah.Jim: [crosstalk] -Pony Express back then. [laughs]Woody: Yeah, right. That was definitely snail mail. It always fascinates the shit out of me what the criminal mind does. This is after I worked in the prison system too. But it's a phenomenal award-winning magazine.Jim: It really is. The guy who started that magazine is who we're going to really be talking about today. The interesting deal with this gentleman is that he was the original editor and the guy who started the Angolite. But not only did he do that, he also, in addition, kept probably one of the best diaries of Angola. As a matter of fact, I'm going to go ahead and say the best diary of Angola you would ever come across. And he had a nickname. I'm going to tell you about that nickname first. They called him Old Wooden Ears.Woody: Wooden Ears.Jim: The reason they called this gentleman that is he was beat by a correctional officer at some point during his early years in Angola and actually went deaf in one ear. So, he was known by the prisoners as Old Wooden Ears. We're going to tell you about the diaries of William Sadler, and we're going to name this episode Old Wooden Ears.Woody: Wooden Ears.Jim: The interesting thing with this episode is that we're going to actually read you the diary because we can't do this justice without actually reading you the entry. We're just going to take these back and forth. Trust me, this is interesting, y'all. This is the real diary.Woody: Think about it. You don't have a whole lot to do in prison. At least this guy was keeping himself busy by keeping a diary.Jim: And didn't hold back.Woody: Right. He told the truth according to him.Jim: Mm-hmm. That's right. We're going to start with January 1st, 1936. This was New Year's Day on Angola, and it was celebrated by all hands out in the field with the exception of Camp E, most of whom are assigned to the refinery. Sugarcane cutting going on full blast with no Sundays or holidays off until grinding ends, which will be about the middle of the month. Red Hats out in the cane shed.Woody: Red Hats.Jim: If you listen to our Red Hats episode, you'll find out a little bit more about them. But he'salready mentioning the Red Hat.Woody: Yeah. On January 3rd, 1936, he writes, "There was hail on the Gola this day. The refinery has been making 100% white sugar and shipping it to the brokers in Chicago under the Pelican Refinery, Baton Rouge label, so consumers wouldn't get onto the fact that it was made by convict labor. The last month, some of those dudes loading freight cars at Camp B siphoned off sugar out of several sacks and filled holes with striped convict clothes. When the sacks hit Chicago in the retail market and a howl went up, this was heard way down here. The result? About 16 men caught the bat, anywhere from 30 to 45 lashes each. But those who were beaten weren't the guilty ones, strange to say. It seems their clothing had been stolen and shoved into the sacks. And since the dudes bore their laundry numbers, it made them automatically guilty. The actual perpetrators of the switch got off scot-free, which is often the case on this Angola."Jim: How about that?Woody: Right. Y'all, go back and listen to some of our other episodes. The bat was basically a big leather strap. That's what they're referring to. Now, that's pretty smart. Let me tell youthis real quick. When I was in basic training in the army, they had a guy on a cot across from me that snored every night, and I wouldn't get any sleep anyway, I've been on a light sleeper. So, before the lights went out, you had to line your shoes underneath the bunk, I stole one of his boots. When the lights went out, he started snoring, I reared back and I threw that boot, I hit him in his head as hard as I could. He jumped up and he was like, "You motherfuckers. I'm going to get you. I got your boot. When I turn on the lights in the morning, I'm going to find out who it is." But guess what? It was his. These prisoners were smart like that. They stole somebody else's clothes and other inmates' clothes and numbers and plugged the holes. They were hoping to get the uprising, which they got. But unfortunately, for the victims that they stole from, well, they got the bat.Jim: They got the bat. 30 to 45 lashes, y'all. You're starting to see the brutality with Angola and why they called it Bloody Angola. Another thing that I found interesting about that entry was the fact that they would switch the labels. The reason they would do that, back in the 30s, people weren't down with convict labor like that.Woody: They still do it. When I worked at DCI, they had the crawfish plant, and they ran 24 hours a day. They brought in two 18-wheeler loads of crawfish a day and they boiled them. The inmates had to peel 16 pounds of tail meat and they got to weigh it in their 12-hour shift. If they didn't peel the 16 pounds, they went to the hole. But guess what? They packaged it under Louisiana Crawfish Company and sold it. That's the shit you buy in the grocery store when you buy Louisiana Crawfish-- It used to be when you buy Louisiana Crawfish tails.Jim: There it goes. The next time you buy, you think about that.Woody: [crosstalk] -crawfish season, they made them cut onions and they sold the cut-uponions like the Holy Trinity. But they damn sure didn't say it was done by prisoners.Jim: That's right. We continue on. And you're seeing that brutality take place. "January 5th, 1936. Narrowly missed the bat myself this day. Captain JH Row-" that's a good cager name, "-of Camp A missed credit for a carload of cane which had been sent to the mill. There's always been more confusion out in the yard when the cane cars are brought in by railroad crews at night. In this case, the weight ticket evidently became lost, not by fault, but close shave nevertheless."Woody: Wow, close shave-- [crosstalk] Jim: Yeah. And he narrowly missed that bat.Woody: I can't imagine there were a lot of lights and shit on the trains, they were rolling. I think about sugarcane, y'all, that's what he's talking about. Look, there's a certain time you got to cut it and get it out and get it to the mill to get it pressed. I know they were working sun up to sun down.Jim: Oh, yeah. And sugarcane was a huge commodity. Woody: Still is.Jim: It still is, yes.Woody: All right, y'all. So, the next one, his journal entry is on January 9th, 1936. He says, "It was cold and pouring down rain today. No slickers, no boots, no gloves. All camps that work in the fields, negro women cutting cane from on headland, white men from Camp G working toward them. John Henry on the turn row. Dinner served out in the open. Rain so hard, the whippoorwill peas bounce off your plate faster than you can spoon down. Menutoday, chicken, chopped grits, stove pipe gravy, soybean bread, and coffee made from horse beans for breakfast."Jim: I'm hungry already. [laughs] Woody: Right? I can't imagine. Jim: Out in the rain, y'all.Woody: Hey, it's raining so hard, you try to eat your shit before it gets any soggier, but the fat drops are hitting your plate so hard that your peas are bouncing off the plate? That's crazy. Hey, they didn't give a shit. They were getting that sugar cut.Jim: That's right. "14th January, 1936. The whistle blew today for the end of the 1935-36 grinding season. Tonnage figures showed one of the biggest years in Angola history, but no sugar on the table. They found over nine tons which had been hidden in various places around the refinery for use during the coming year by the refinery crew. The hideouts were tipped off by the Black Cat, who as a convict had helped plan it. Two weeks ago, he was paroled to the state for work in the refinery, so his first duty was to put the finger on the hidden sugar."Woody: Wow. Gave it up. Jim: Gave it up.Woody: You know that went on, man. Sugar is a commodity. Even the free people that worked in the mill, I guarantee the inmates kept some too make that homemade brew. All right, y'all, so we're going to January 20, 1936, again from Wooden Ears' diary. He says, "Camps all at work in the field hoeing stubbles. Rainy and wet today. Wet clothes worn into the camp dormitories, which are heated only by a wood-burning stove made out of a di

5 Jan 202358min